Archive for the 'travel' Category

A great trip with the family to New York City in the spring. One highlight was renting a rowboat in Central Park. The kids were great travellers, and we all enjoyed our trains, plains and busses trip via Toronto city centre airport on Porter.

Lindsay and I went to NYC for my birthday last weekend. I was turning 30 and had never been, despite the fact that everyone else in my life had already been, so it was about time that I made it to the city that never sleeps.

We stayed in the Four Points just off of Times Square. We were only a short walk away from Central Park and managed to make it to the Museum of Natural History, the Met, MOMA and the Guggenheim – and the Intrepid Air, Space and Sea measure for good measure (I believe good measure for those last three is all done in knots).

We also saw Avenue Q – apparently I’m using the internet wrong as I type.

On January 3 2010, with much excitement, I ordered three tickets to the Formula 1 race in Montreal this June. I gave www.circuitgillesvilleneuve.ca / www.admission.com my billing information and bought three seats (and a program). My friends and I were excited that we got great seats in grandstand 34 in middle of Montreal’s best corner “the hairpin”.

Twenty-five days later I get an E-Mail from Pamela Rodriguez of admission.com that reads

“.. you filled an order form for seats in grandstand 34 or 11 in regard of this yearâ€™s F1 race in Montreal.
At the time we treated your request, there was nothing left in those grandstands either because your order got in late or because the seats you requested never were available during presale.”

I filled out a web page, it only took me about a minute, I’m pretty sure they didn’t run out of seats in that minute. The E-Mail confirmation they sent me seemed pretty sure that there weren’t any problems.

I’m left curious when in those 25 days did they run out of seats? Did it happen sometime in the next 24 hours and it took them 24 days to contact me, or realize that they ran out? Did they run out today and it took them 24 days to process my order?

I called within 15 minutes of getting the unconfirmation E-Mail and made sure that my Master Card had yet to be billed for the rescinded tickets and then bought a “new” set of tickets at grandstand 34 – where we’ve been before – but I can’t help but feel misled and disappointed.

If you are thinking of buying tickets to for the F1 race in Montreal I’d recommend dealing with a broker or just watching the race from home. It’s the only way you can predict where you’ll be this June. Read more...(326 words, 1 image, estimated 1:18 mins reading time)

About Matt Clare:

Matt Clare is a Canadian Technologist who is focused on building, deploying and refining the best tools possible for teachers and learners in higher education. Advocate of making all web content accessible by making the creation process easy.